Speechify, an artificial intelligence voice-cloning platform, makes it easy for bad actors to create convincing voice impersonations with no safeguards to prevent fraud, the Consumer Federation of America, or CFA, and students from UCLA Law School’s Information Policy Lab, said a draft lawsuit sent to the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, and state attorneys general.
The draft lawsuit argues that Speechify’s practices violate the Federal Trade Commission Act as well state deceptive practices and digital forgery laws.
Impersonation scams are among the fastest-growing forms of consumer fraud in the United States. Consumers reported losing $3.5 billion to impersonation scams in 2025, nearly three times the amount reported in 2020, according to the FTC.
Older Americans have been hit especially hard, losing $445 million to impersonation scams in 2024, an eightfold increase over four years.
The CFA’s draft lawsuit alleges that Speechify’s voice-cloning technology enables these scams by allowing users to create realistic voice clones from just seconds of audio while relying on little more than a self-verification checkbox to verify consent.
“Speechify has made it remarkably easy for anyone to clone a person’s voice while doing almost nothing to verify consent or prevent abuse,” Ben Winters, director of AI and data privacy for the CFA, said in a statement. “At a time when Americans are losing billions of dollars to impersonation scams, companies cannot continue releasing powerful AI tools without meaningful safeguards and then claim no responsibility when those tools are used to defraud consumers.”
The draft lawsuit asks federal and state regulators to investigate Speechify’s practices and take enforcement action.
The CFA encourages consumers who are concerned about AI-enabled impersonation scams to contact their state attorney general and urge them to hold companies accountable when they fail to take reasonable safeguards against fraud.
The CFA is an advocacy organization and the UCLA Law School’s Information Policy Lab is a project of the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law & Policy.
